1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to transit logistics and, more particularly, to the selection of shipping methods for shipments under dynamically modeled constraints.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the course of commerce, manufacturing and other business activities, different kinds of material often need to be conveyed from one location to another. For example, a global, web-based or brick-and-mortar retail sales operation may routinely ship packages containing customer orders around the world. Similarly, a distributed manufacturing operation may ship components or partially-assembled items from one manufacturing site to another for continued processing. Materials conveyance may also occur on a smaller scale, such as from a materials receiving area of a large, complex manufacturing site to one of a number of processing areas within the site.
There are often a number of different ways or methods to effect shipment from a source to a destination. For example, one may choose from different shippers, such as different common carriers that may accept and transport shipments for a fee. Further, individual carriers may offer a number of different shipment options ranging from expedited service (e.g., overnight air delivery) to economy service (e.g., ground delivery). In some circumstances, possible shipping methods may also encompass private, leased or contract carriers as well as use of an enterprise's own delivery resources.
Selection of a particular shipping method from a number of options may present a complex problem including many constraints. Depending on the nature of the shipment and/or the status or capacity of a carrier, certain methods may be ineligible for selection. For example, if the shipment does not satisfy a carrier's constraints on package dimensions, shape, weight or contents (e.g., liquid, fragile, perishable or hazardous contents), that carrier may refuse to accept the shipment. Of eligible shipping methods, different methods may have different economic, time-based or other costs, which method selection may attempt to optimize. However, complex cost relationships among different shipping methods may complicate per-shipment cost optimization. For example, under the constraints of a volume shipping arrangement with a particular carrier, a cost of shipping a particular package may depend not only on characteristics of the particular package, but also information about other packages that have been or may be tendered to the particular carrier.